Author: Jay Goldberg
Smooth transitions are a key part of a great radio station – but sometimes timing glitches can occur after ad breaks. If you're experiencing a glitch and need to smooth over the transition, this is what I recommend: First, to ensure that music is not cut off, I have a promo coming out of ads. An example is “Now back to NAME OF SHOW.” I also add a very brief statement about the show. Next I reduced my crossfade to 4 seconds – fade in 1, fade out 3. Finally, I added five seconds of royalty-free electronic music to the beginning of all promos that follow ads. The five seconds I selected is a short repeating pattern where it doesn't matter where it starts. Using Audacity (a free music editor) or similar software, I lowered the recording volume for the five seconds, and faded out the last 1.5 seconds. With the piece I selected, it almost sounds like the old-time intro to a report from a news desk. To date, my monitoring of this transition has shown that the five seconds works. The range has been from the full five seconds playing, to no music intro, but the promo starting at the beginning.
There are numerous options for obtaining the royalty-free electronic music. You can use one of the sites with music already available or an AI site to create your own. I used a free-for-commercial-use AI-generated music site.
As for the music this month, I'm highlighting an album many don't know, that is not only a favorite of mine, but one that has accolades from reviewers such as Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, and The Independent's Andy Gill. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and in Pitchfork's “150 Best Albums of the 1990s.” The album is Whatever by Aimee Mann. Mann was the lead singer, bass, and acoustic guitar player for the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, best known for their song “Voices Carry.” FYI – Mann is married to singer Micheal Penn (“No Myth”) who is actor Sean Penn's brother.
I have seven songs from the album on my station.
Listen to the full album:
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